Raynaud and Clifford Shine, Lead Kings in Win Over Magic

The Good:

We’ll start with the rookies, specifically Nique and Maxime. Maxime kicked things off and showed a ton of his game right away as he pushed Sacramento out to a big lead. Raynaud was able to score from deep, off of offensive boards, and even in transition.

While his shot is still pretty slow, he looked mostly comfortable letting it fly from deep on a 2-5 night. As Scott Perry mentioned in his interview during the game, Raynaud was also very impressive on defense and moved his feet well on the perimeter. 

Nique Clifford started off a bit quiet, at least offensively, but he made himself known by the end of the game. While Nique didn’t score much early, his work on the defensive end was definitely positive. Clifford’s communication and screen navigation were impressive, as Sacramento as a whole was solid defensively in the first half. Nique really started to come alive in the second half as he finished with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Most importantly, Clifford made smart plays down the stretch that led to the win. After Jase Richardson made a hard drive and finish on the other end, Clifford immediately attacked the Magic defense and scored a tough bucket in transition. He followed that up with a trip to the line, and then a dunk off a Devin Carter kick-out that put Sacramento up 4 with 43 seconds remaining.

It’s easy to overreact to Clifford and Raynaud because they were very good, but some of the relative veterans of the Kings squad were important as well. Both Isaac and Mason Jones played well after leading the Stockton Kings to the G-League Championship last season.

While Isaac was clearly frustrated with the officiating at times, his aggressiveness helped make sure Sacramento kept its lead. Isaac scored 11 points, but most importantly he got to the line over and over again, ending with 9 free throw attempts. Mason wasn’t as efficient as usual, but still went 3-7 from deep on the way to 17 points for the game.

Mason’s organizational skills while running the point were also vital to Sacramento, as other ball handlers looked a bit rushed by Orlando’s pressure. While the highlights all focus on the rooks, Sacramento would’ve been in trouble without Mason and Isaac. 

The Bad:

It feels a bit unfair to harp on Devin Carter here because he was still very good defensively, but the offense was just a really rough watch. Carter was aggressive throughout the night, but he really struggled as a creator for himself and others.

Devin also struggled from deep, missing all four of his attempts. Carter just didn’t look comfortable initiating the offense, and most of his shots looked really forced. Carter did make some nice reads, especially down the stretch, but he would need to show a lot more to get any run at the one next season.

Dylan Cardwell and Isaiah Stevens were also unremarkable as the only two-way contracts locked in for next season. Carter, Isaiah Crawford, Stevens, and Cardwell were largely outplayed by Daequon Plowden and Taevion Kinsey, which isn’t exactly what the Kings were hoping for. 

Sacramento got Summer League started with a win and both the draftees looked solid, so I think we can chalk today up as a win. As mentioned, Devin Carter needs to be a lot better next game as do some of Sacramento’s other rostered players, but the positives outweigh the negatives here. The Kings will take on the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, July 12th, as they hope to start things off 2-0.